We see the pace of initial public offerings in 2006 remaining unchanged from 2005 with a continuing emphasis on companies with proven business models, top-line and bottom-line growth and scale.

We see continued strength in capital flows to private equity firms from institutional investors seeking above-average returns, and increased interest from foreign investors in U.S.-based private equity firms.

A vote of confidence from Cisco Systems can be very important to fledging technology companies, especially if they have initial public offerings on the horizon.

The integration of the companies is just starting to take place. There have been some initial appointments made and a lot more to be expected.

The joint acquisition by ONGC and CNPC is a pace setter for both the companies. ONGC and CNPC have been working together in Greater Nile Oil Project in Sudan, but it is for the first time that they have joined hands to acquire an oil asset together.

I have my own theory about why decline happens at companies like IBM or Microsoft. The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important. The company starts valuing the great salesmen, because they’re the ones who can move the needle on revenues, not the product engineers and designers. So the salespeople end up running the company.